>17 october 2000
>from peter jones, sheffield hallam university
.....
>wasn't it??). he returns to the detail of this claim but i find it very
>hard to
>follow in parts. for example when he discusses 'the problem of uniting
>processes of activity that are internal and external in their form' he argues
>that 'the principle or law of this uniting is that it always takes place
>precisely along the 'seams' of the structure described'. does anybody get
>this??
Peter,
Leontiev elaborates on the idea you mention in the paragraph next to the
one from which the citation is taken. In my view, what he is saying is that
essentially internal activities may contain external components, but these
components are always whole actions or operations, not incomplete fragments
("splinters") of actions or operations. The same applies to internal
components of essentially external activities. Therefore, according to
Leontiev, the line separating internal and external components of an
activity goes along the "seams" between units of the activity (actions or
operations) and does not cut across the units.
Personally, I find this idea very questionable, to say the least. In my
opinion, there are reasons to believe that actions and operations can
consist of both internal and external components. Also, I do not recall the
above idea of Leontiev's got any attention in further theoretical
discussions and empirical studies.
Best wishes,
Victor Kaptelinin
Informatik
Umeå Univ.
901 87 Umeå
SWEDEN
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 01 2000 - 01:01:24 PST